Tag Archives: twitter

March 26, 2018Comments Off on Dooley deplores ‘Twitterbots’ phenomenon

Social media companies have been called upon by a local TD to take a more proactive role in guarding against the misuse of their platforms. Deputy Timmy Dooley’s call comes in the wake of further revelations regarding the role of social media in political discourse and elections. Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Communications, Climate Action & Environment has highlighted the scourge of so-called “Twitterbots”, which are essentially computer programmes used to generate tens or hundreds of fake Twitter accounts, which are then used to promote certain content on the platform. “Twitterbots have become an extremely disturbing phenomenon – a recent study from the University of Southern California and Indiana University suggesting that there may be up to 48 million of these accounts active on Twitter. That’s about 15% of the overall number of Twitter users worldwide, so there is no way that Twitter is unaware of this issue”, said Deputy Dooley. “A person or group can quite easily run a computer …

Clare County Council will provide updates on conditions at the county’s Blue Flag beaches on its Twitter and Facebook accounts from Saturday next. The updates will feature latest sea, water quality and weather conditions, as well as tide in and tide out times for Ballycuggeran (Killaloe), Cappa, Fanore, Kilkee, Lahinch, Mountshannon, Spanish Point, Whitestrand Doonbeg and Whitestrand Miltown Malbay. The updates coincide with the commencement of lifeguard cover at County Clare beaches this June Bank Holiday Weekend. Lifeguard cover will be provided at Clare’s Blue Flag beaches from 11.00am to 7.00pm this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Cover will continue on Saturdays and Sundays during the month of June, while there will be full-time time cover at these locations as well as at Bishops Quarter (Ballyvaughan) and Seafield Quilty during the months of July and August and the first two weekends of September.

September 23, 2015Comments Off on Oireachtas committee to consider cyber bullying

Senator Lorraine Higgins has written to the Oireachtas committee on communications to request that representatives from facebook and Twitter be called before it Senator Higgins has sought their attendance at the committee in order to answer questions about their practices in light of the outcome of a recent survey by Vodafone, which found that one in every four children in Ireland have been cyber bullied, with 51% believing the issue to be bigger than drug abuse amongst young people and 45% feeling totally helpless when it happened to them. Senator Higgins said, “This is an issue that I not only have been talking about but have introduced legislation on to curb abuse, threat as and cyberbullying online. While legislation is only one way to deal with the issue there are others like education and awareness within schools. However, that is not to say that social media companies should get off scot free when it comes to legal and moral responsibility …